SCIENCE VERSUS STRENGTH
Had the large man undergone the scientific training of the smaller one,
he might have overcome him, for, as has been said, he was immensely
powerful and must have been a third heavier than Stockham Calvert. But he
was out of condition, and, worse than all for him, had not the slightest
knowledge of the "manly art." When he doubled his huge hairy fists, he
charged upon the detective like a roaring bull, expecting to beat down
his smaller antagonist as if he were pulp.
The pose of the defendant was perfect. Resting easily on his right foot,
the left advanced and gently touching the ground, he could leap forward,
backward or to one side with the agility of a panther. The left fist was
held something more than a foot beyond the chest, the elbow slightly
crooked, while the right forearm crossed the breast diagonally at a
distance of a few inches. This is the true position, and the combatant
who knows his business always looks straight into the eyes of his
opponent. The arms and body are thus in his field of vision, whereas if
he once glances elsewhere he lays himself open to a sudden blow.
With that alertness which becomes second nature to a pugilist, Calvert
saw before the first demonstration that his foe had no knowledge whatever
of defending himself. He allowed him to make a single rush, his big fists
and arms sawing space like a windmill. He struck twice, swishing the air
in front of Calvert's face, and gathered himself to strike again,
when----
Not one of the three spectators could ever describe how it was done, for
the action was too quick for the eye to follow. But, all the same, that
metal-like left fist shot forward with the speed of lightning, and
landing on the point of the chin, the recipient went down like an ox
stricken by the axe of a butcher. Rather curiously, he did not fall
backward, but lurched forward and lay senseless, knocked out in the first
round.
"You have killed him!" whispered the scared Captain.
"Not a bit of it, but he will be dead to the world for ten or fifteen
minutes. We may as well let him rest in peace. What's become of that
dog?" asked the officer, glancing inquiringly around.
Chester pointed toward the house. The brute, with his two inches of tail
aimed skyward, was scooting around the corner of the building as fast as
his bowed legs could carry him. He would not have done so had he been of
true bulldog breed, but being a mongrel, there was a big streak of yellow
in his make-up.
"He's come to the belief that it's a good time to adjourn, as me cousin
said whin someone blowed up the stump on which he was risting his weary
body."
"I think we have had enough foraging along the river," remarked Captain
Alvin, who re-entered the boat and resumed his place at the wheel. "We
dine at Wiscasset."
"I'm not partic'lar as to the place," said Mike, "if only we dine."
Chester flung the loop of rope off the support, and he and the others
stepped aboard the launch, which moved up the river. Standing in front of
the detective, Mike, with his genial grin, offered his hand:
"I asks the privilege of a shake of yours. I apologize for thinking ye
didn't like a shindy as well as the rest of us. I'm sorry for me mistake,
as me uncle said, whin he inthroodoced dad to a party of leddies as a
gintleman. I couldn't have done better mesilf."
The smiling officer cordially accepted the proffer.
"No one can doubt your pluck, Mike, but, to quote your favorite method of
expressing yourself, you showed mighty poor judgment, as the owner of the
bull said when the animal tried to butt a locomotive off the track. That
man would have eaten you up."
"P-raps, but he would have found me hard to digist. Do ye obsarve?"
He pointed to the little landing which they were leaving behind them. All
looked and saw the burly brute of a man slowly rise to a sitting posture,
with his hat off and his frowsy hair in his eyes, as he stared confusedly
after the launch speeding up the river.
"He is recovering quicker than I expected," was the only remark Calvert
made, as he turned his back upon the fellow and gave his attention to
lighting another cigar.
"He has the look of a fellow mixed and confused like, similar to Pat
McGuigan, whin he dived off the dock and his head and shoulders wint
through a lobster pot that he didn't obsarve in time to avoid the same."
"He's coming round all right," said Calvert, referring to the man they
had left behind, though he did not glance at him. "He may not be very
pretty, but he knows more than he did a little while ago. Which reminds
me to say something that ought to have been said at our first interview."
The three listened to the words of Calvert, who clearly was in earnest.
"Each of you knows that I am a professional detective who has been sent
into Maine to do all I can to capture the gang that is robbing the post
offices in this section. I told you that much, but I wish to ask you to
be very, very careful not to say this to any person whom you may meet,
until you have my permission to do so. Some would insist that it was
unprofessional on my part to say what I did, but I had good reason for
it, as will appear before I am through with the business."
"It was not necessary to tell Chester and me that, but I suppose you wish
to run no risk that can be avoided."
"That's it; I did not doubt your loyalty, but you know we can't be too
careful."
Mike was leaning back in his chair deeply thinking.
"There's one waak p'int in the plan suggisted."
Inasmuch as no one had submitted a plan the three wondered.
"Me friend doesn't wish us to tell anyone that he's the best detictive
and scrapper outside of our family in Ireland, but when folks priss their
questions, some answer must be given or 'spicions will be stirred."
"The point is well taken. I don't wish you to tell an untruth----"
"I'm sure the task is not difficult fur the Captain and second mate,"
interrupted Mike, "though it's beyond me."
"But you can evade a direct reply."
"May I vinture upon another suggistion?" asked Mike.
"We shall all be glad to hear it, I'm sure."
"Without waiting for questions to be asked, I'll step up to ivery one
that I obsarve casting an inquiring eye over ye and say ye're my older
brither, that took a hand in the Phoenix Park murders, but broke out of
Dublin jail and thus escaped hanging, and yer kaaping dark in Ameriky
till the little matter blows over."
"A brilliant idea!" laughed the officer. "All I ask is that you give no
truthful information about me."
"Ye doesn't objict to my telling folks how ye laid out that Goliah a bit
ago?"
"I prefer you should not mention it."
Mike sighed.
"Ah, have ye no pride of family, as Tam O'Toole used to say whin
mintioning the fact that all his five brithers were in jail, where Tarn
himsilf ought to have been?"
"I may add," continued the man, "that it is quite likely we shall soon
part company."
Mike affected to be surprised.
"Doesn't the Captain pay ye 'nough wages?"
"I have no fault to find on that score."
"I'm glad to larn that. If he requires ye to do too much dooty, I'll hilp
ye out, the bist I can."
"I promise to call upon you if necessary, Mike, but I hope I shall not be
obliged to do so."
"I have been wondering since we started," said Alvin over his shoulder,
"whether by any possibility the _Water Witch_ kept on up the river ahead
of us instead of running into some bay or inlet to the south."
"It is possible, but not probable. You know we had an extended view of
this stream, or rather of Montsweag Bay, and she could not have gone far
enough in the short time to pass out of sight."
"Ye forgits how anxious the Captain was not to overtake her," reminded
Mike. "I once read of a farmer who chased a big black bear that had been
staaling his sheep fur two days and nights and then quit. Can ye guess
why?"
"I should say that after so long a chase he would have given up
disgusted," replied the detective.
"It was not that; it was 'cause he found the tracks were becooming too
fresh."
"I don't think, Mike, that you are in danger of being accused of that,"
ventured Chester, "because you are always fresh--you are never _becoming_
so."
"But the same is becooming to me, as Jim Flannery said whin he walked
into church wid two black eyes and his head bent out of shape from the
shindy he had with his twin brither over the quistion of aiting maat on
Friday."
"You seem quite sure that these three whom we saw in the launch are mixed
up in these post office robberies?" asked Alvin.
"It has that look. No matter how certain I may feel, nothing can be
accomplished until legal proof is obtained. You know the rule that every
man must be presumed to be innocent until proved guilty."
"It shtrikes me that the most important quistion of all has been
sittled."
"What's that?"
"These two young gintlemen are the spalpeens that tried to hold ye up,
Captain, the ither night on yer way home. That fur outweighs the taking
of a few postage stamps from some country offices."
"The puzzling feature of that business," said Alvin, "is that when you
meet those two fellows again, you will not have Mr. Calvert along to
protect you."
Mike stared as if he failed to catch the meaning of this astounding
remark.
"Plaise say that agin, Captain, and say it slow like."
Alvin's face being turned away, he was not forced to maintain his gravity
while he repeated in his most serious tones the remark quoted.
"All I have to say to that is not to say anything, as Teddy Geoghan
observed whin they found a stolen pig in the bag he was carrying over his
shoulder which the same he insisted was filled with clothes for Widow
Mulligan."